Snake first appeared on a Nokia device in 1997 on the Nokia 6110. It was adapted for Nokia devices by Taneli Armanto, a design engineer in user interface software.

Snake was one of three games introduced in 1997, with the others being Logic and Memory. I remember playing Memory far more than Snake, but that was because I was bad at it. Logic was just stupid, but that’s because it was far too complicated for my 8-year-old mind.

The game is on over 400 million mobile phones and is now on its ninth version.

A fun fact is that Nokia 7110 players could play multiplayer Snake via the phones’ infra-red connections.

The most interesting fact, for me at least, is the maximum number of points on level one is 312 and on level nine is 2008. Nokia Connects lays out the scoring formula as: “bits on screen (212) X level (1 through to 9) + 100 bonus points for completing the level.”

A nice tribute is that Windows Phone now has a Snake ‘97 app that emulates the original game perfectly for those feeling up for a nostalgia bomb today.

I remember asking to see the family cellphone just so I could play Snake on long rides to see family. I didn’t realize it until today, but Snake is pretty influential on gaming as a whole. It started the mobile gaming craze that’s focused on simple, easy to understand games.

We at WebProNews tip our hats off to Snake for the many hours of fun its provided us and for the many more hours of fun it will provide to countless other people.